8 min read
When people hear “mergers and acquisitions,” the first reaction is usually a mix of excitement and fear.
And honestly, that’s exactly how I felt the first few times I walked into a boardroom about to present on profitability. The energy shifts, the stakes feel high, and everyone’s wondering the same thing: will this actually create growth, or will it just make our lives more complicated?
I’m Tarmo Van Der Goot, Chief Revenue Officer and board member at Frisbii. Over the last several years, I’ve been fortunate to lead through multiple acquisitions. Along the way, I’ve learned hard lessons, made mistakes, and seen what truly drives revenue growth when companies come together.
The global M&A market is projected at around $4.7 trillion. But here’s the kicker: about 85% of those deals fail to deliver the expected value. So my goal in this article is to share my three key steps to help you land in that successful 15%.
Let’s get started.
Why most acquisitions fail: The “synergy trap”
One of the most common mistakes I see in M&A is trying to sell the idea of “synergy” without actually planning for it.
On paper, it sounds great: we’ll cross-sell products, create bundles, and leverage each other’s markets. In reality? What often happens is that pricing gets complex, teams revert to selling only what they know, and what you thought would be an integrated offering becomes a painfully slow a la carte model.
I’ve seen it firsthand. When you acquire quickly without thinking through packaging and alignment, you dump the responsibility onto your revenue org, expecting them to “make it work.” But without clear direction, sales reps will naturally fall back on what they know. And prospects? They’ll feel the misalignment immediately.
That’s why step one is so important.
Rohit Angle
Step one: Monetize through packaging and alignment
Let’s start with pricing. Pricing is where integration either accelerates growth or drags it down. If you make things complex – multiple product lines, different models, unclear bundles – you’re basically setting yourself up for slow adoption.
I’ve found that the quickest way to unlock value is to create simple tiered bundles. Make it easy for your go-to-market teams. If your own sellers are confused, your customers don’t stand a chance.
At Frisbii, we learned this the hard way. In the early days, our group was made up of four companies: Billwerk, Planigo, Repay, and SoFacto. Each had its own history, culture, and pricing model. And guess what? When you try to merge companies but only one retains its branding, the others don’t feel part of the team. You get silos, and suddenly you’re managing four companies instead of one group.
That’s why we eventually rebranded as Frisbii. It wasn’t just a name change – it was a cultural reset. Creating one identity made everyone feel like they were part of something bigger.
Or flip it around: don’t integrate the product first – integrate the team. Customers can sense misalignment instantly.
A personal story illustrates this. We once had a huge opportunity from a media publishing company in the Nordics. Perfect, right? We had a market leader in publishing in Germany, so it seemed like a slam dunk. We tried to bring sellers from both Germany and Denmark to the table, thinking we’d impress the prospect. Instead, we spent the first 20 minutes explaining who we were and why this team was structured that way. The customer literally said, “You don’t seem aligned.” We lost the deal.
Lesson learned: align your teams immediately, even on small opportunities, so that when the big fish comes along, you’re ready.
And above all: check your ICP alignment. If one company sells to enterprise clients and the other sells to SMBs, you’re not going to cross-sell successfully. You’re just going to confuse prospects. ICP misalignment is the hidden killer of synergies.
Jayesh Menon
Revenue operations alliance insider
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